'"What word can I use?" he said. "It is true, I am the only slave in Sweden. Now, Captain Yorke, do you suppose that Egypt could be governed by a representative government?"
'My answer was immediate, "Impossible, sire."
'"There, Count Welterdick, do you hear that?" Turning to the courtiers and Lord Bloomfield, he ejaculated with considerable force, "There, there, you are right, sir—you are right!" During all this conversation the King seemed considerably excited. The Diet had just met and things had not gone there so as to please him. After a few more commonplace observations he said, "Good evening. The Queen wishes to see you below, go to her, and dine with me before you leave us."'
CHAPTER VI
GREEK INDEPENDENCE. 1829-1831
In letters written from Stockholm to his father and brother in the autumn of 1828, Captain Yorke expresses very urgently his desire to find himself again on active service. 'I see the Lord High Admiral is out,' he wrote to Sir Joseph in September of that year, 'and whoever comes in, pray try and get me to the Mediterranean if it is possible.' A month later his brother, the Rev. Henry Yorke, is reminded of the same wish. 'Since the Russians have blockaded the Dardanelles and old Melville has again taken up the cudgels, I do not know what to think, and I anxiously await a line from England. Employment is what I most wish, and now more than ever, for England will be at war ere long. I trust in God my friends will stir for me.'
Captain Yorke's anticipation of a war in which England should be involved was not fulfilled, but the chafing at a life of inaction by the ardent sailor which appears so clearly in his letters was soon relieved by his appointment to the command of the brig Alligator in November or December of 1828.
After some short service in home waters, during which he visited the Orkneys, Captain Yorke was ordered to take the Alligator to the Mediterranean station, where it doubtless occurred to the authorities that the energy and ability he had shown when in command of the Alacrity in Greek waters a few years earlier would be of service in the new circumstances which had arisen in that part of the world. The Greek War of Independence, which was in full progress when Captain Yorke was engaged in suppressing the piracy of which it was a chief cause in 1823-26, was now drawing to a close. In 1827 Great Britain, France, and Russia were all united in securing the independence of the country, which was recognised by a treaty between the three Powers in that year, and in January following Count Capo d'Istria was elected President of the new republic. There remained, however, the difficulty of extracting the same acknowledgment from the Sultan, and from his powerful and practically independent vassal, Mehemet Ali Pacha of Egypt, whose aid he had invoked, and whose son Ibrahim held much of the revolted country. But in 1828 the Allies at last came to an arrangement with Mehemet, and by a convention concluded by Sir Edward Codrington, that potentate agreed to evacuate the Morea and to deliver all captives. There then remained the difficult work of fixing boundaries, of taking over such parts of the country as were occupied by the Turkish and Egyptian forces, and of reconciling the inhabitants of those portions of the Hellenic territory which had not been allowed by the Powers to attain their independence to a continuance of the Turkish rule. Of these the island of Crete with its heroic Spakiotes, who had never acknowledged the Sultan as their sovereign, was perhaps the most troublesome and difficult. There remained also the incidental suppression of the piracy which still continued. This duty, as before, fell mainly to the share of Captain Yorke in the Alligator.
From a journal among the Hardwicke MSS. at the British Museum, I am able to trace my father in that service from September 1, 1830, onwards. He was then ordered to visit Volo, Salonica, and the neighbourhood, 'owing to the reports of piracies lately committed, and to express all manner of good will to all parties excepting such pirates, whom I am ordered to destroy should I fall in with them.' On his arrival at Napoli at the end of August he found the admirals of France and Russia and the Commissioners for settling the boundaries of the new republic. 'The work goes slowly on,' he records; 'Russia makes difficulties and throws obstacles in the way.' He reports that Capo d'Istria was generally unpopular, an opinion which was confirmed by his assassination only a year later. He found the islands of the Archipelago much dissatisfied with the result of their rebellion, many of them apparently preferring to remain under the Turk; others with a grievance because they had not been included in the transfer; all of them intensely jealous of each other. 'The islands are particularly dissatisfied,' he says. 'Their situation is much changed. Under the Turk the islander was freer and was rich and had great trade; now, ruined by the war, he has lost his ships and his commerce.' On September 3 he sails along the coast of Negropont, about to be evacuated by the Turks, and hears of piracies committed by them in leaving that country. 'It is not to be supposed,' he says, 'that these reckless ruffians would desist from insulting Greek boats and vessels when they fall in with them.' Going on to Volo, the Aga of that town assured him that no piracies had taken place recently in the district, and 'that a small boat might now go in safety to Constantinople,' but of this the captain evidently had his doubts. On the 6th he fell in with the Meteor, Captain Copeland, and anchored with her near Zituni, between Negropont and the coast of Thessaly. His impression of this part of the world is of interest.
'In this part of Thessaly,' he says, 'an English ship had never been before seen to anchor. I was greeted by the natives. The Greek population are armed, and the number of Turks in the surrounding district does not exceed fifteen. Opposite to us is the pass of Thermopylae, of which pass there is now no remains, the sea having receded and a considerable plain of alluvial soil now exists where the Pass must have been. The part of Thessaly opposite the Negropont is the ancient Myseria and the first scene of the memorable Argonautic Expedition. Volo was Iolcos, from which Jason embarked his band of adventurers. Pelion is seen from the gulf.'